The List: Williamsburg setting

It’s fun to read a book set in your own backyard — so I’ve compiled a short list of fiction that takes place (or supposedly takes place) in or around Williamsburg, Virginia.  Choose a romance, mystery, or historical fiction:

• Patriot’s Dream, by Barbara Michaels (available in LP only)
• Thanksgiving, by Janet Evanovich
• Secrets, by Jude Deveraux
• Colonial Christmas Brides, by Lauralee Bliss and Irene Brand
• Simple Genius, by David Baldacci
• The Williamsburg Forgeries, by John Ballinger
• Guns and Roses, by Taffy Cannon
• The Last Debate, by Jim Lehrer
• Dawn’s Early Light, by Elswyth Thane
• The Guardship, by James L. Nelson

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The List: Great Historical Mysteries

I am an unabashed fan of crime fiction set in the past. It is fascinating to consider how crimes might have been solved in the days before police departments, forensic scientists, and loads of technology. Often these books hark back to the puzzle side of crime fiction allowing the reader to solve the crime along with the fictional detective. Here are some of my favorite historical crime novels, arranged in chronological order.

• Lynda S. Robinson – Lord Meren mysteries, beginning with Murder in the Place of Anubis (Egypt, 1330s BCE)
• Steven Saylor – Gordianus the Finder mysteries, beginning with Roman Blood (Rome, 80-50 BCE)
• Peter Tremayne – Sister Fidelma mysteries, beginning with Absolution by Murder (Ireland, 660s)
• Ariana Franklin – Mistress of the Art of Death series, beginning with Mistress of the Art of Death (England, 1170s)
• Caroline Roe – Chronicles of Isaac of Girona, beginning with Remedy for Treason (Girona, Spain, 1350s)
• Kate Sedley – Roger the Chapman mysteries, beginning with Death and the Chapman (England 1470s)
• Edward Marston – Nicholas Bracewell series, beginning with The Queen’s Head (England, 1580s)
• Laura Joh Rowland – Sano Ichiro mysteries, beginning with Shinju (Edo, Japan, 1680s)
• Bruce Alexander – Sir John Fielding series, beginning with Blind Justice (England, 1770s)
• Jason Goodwin – Investigator Yashim series, beginning with The Janissary Tree (Istanbul, Turkey, 1830s)
• Michael Pearce – Mamur Zapt series, beginning with The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet (Egypt, 1908-18)

Other favorites? Add them in the comments.

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The List: Academic Fiction

My daughter started college this week, and I start teaching a class for Catholic University’s graduate program in Library Science next week. So, I find myself thinking of books about school and academics. There are a lot of fascinating works of fiction set in academia. They are often funny, satiric, and thoughtful in equal measure. Here are some of my favorites.

• Robertson Davies — The Lyre of Orpheus
• Michael Malone — Foolscap
• R.F. Delderfield — To Serve Them All My Days
• Jon Hassler — Rookery Blues
• Phillip Roth — The Human Stain
• David Lodge — Small World
  
• Kingsley Amis — Lucky Jim
• Richard Russo — Straight Man

Other favorites? Add them in the comments.

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The List: Cooking Up Something Good

I enjoy cooking, especially in the summer when there are plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits,  and herbs in the garden, only a short walk from the kitchen door. I also enjoy looking through cookbooks to get some new ideas on how to use different ingredients. Here are some of my favorite collections of recipes and ideas for interesting dishes.

• Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant
• The Complete Book of Soups and Stews
• Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book
• The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook
• The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking
• Moosewood Restaurant New Classics
• The Joy of Cooking
• The Taste of Country Cooking
• Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
  

More favorites? Add them in the comments.

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The List: Great Road Books

A brief driving trip this past summer got me thinking about great road stories. Whether the mode of travel is car, train, plane, or shank’s mare, these tales of the highways and byways are always interesting for their insights into both the traveler and the route. Here are some of my favorite titles of being out on the road.

• Blue Highways — William Least Heat Moon
• Uncommon Carriers — John McPhee
• Riding the Iron Rooster — Paul Theroux
• In Patagonia — Bruce Chatwin
• Stranger on a Train — Jenny Diski
• A Walk Across America — Peter Jenkins
• A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush — Eric Newby
• Travels with Charley — John Steinbeck
• In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon — Redmond O’Hanlon
  

Other favorites? Add them in the comments.

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The List: Romance in the Kitchen

Start with two attractive people, add the steamy atmosphere of the kitchen, stir with the fast-paced work environment, and cook up late nights… and you get a recipe for romance in the kitchen!  Here are some books featuring chefs/restaurants/bakeries as a main component of the love story.

• Sweet Talk, by Susan Mallery
• Hot Flash, by Kathy Carmichael
• Second Thyme Around, by Katie Fforde (also known as Thyme Out)
• Deep Dish, by Mary Kay Andrews
• Can’t Stand the Heat, by Louisa Edwards
• The Next Best Thing, by Kristan Higgins
• Summer by the Sea, by Susan Wiggs
• The Lost Recipe for Happiness, by Barbara O’Neal

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The List: Great 19th Century Novels

Every so often I find myself in the mood for a sprawling, leisurely-paced work of fiction. There are a multitude of novels written in the 19th century that amply fit the bill. The list below includes some of my favorites. These are great stories and have such a strong sense of place that you are quite transported. They are great reading for a languid week at the beach or a long winter’s night.

• Thomas Hardy — Far from the Madding Crowd
• Stendhal — The Charterhouse of Parma
• Charles Dickens — Bleak House
• Anthony Trollope — Barchester Towers
• Robert Louis Stevenson — Treasure Island
• Wilkie Collins — The Woman in White
• Sir Walter Scott — Rob Roy
• Charlotte Bronte — Jane Eyre

Other favorites? Add them in the comments below.

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The List: Great Train Stories

I doubt that any stories set in SUVs or on 727s will ever have the same oomph as stories set on trains.  Trains return us to a storied past where technology was both practical and magical – what better way for Harry Potter to travel to Hogwarts but the Express from Platform 9 3/4?  Trains can isolate a group of strangers, creating the feel of a country house or locked room for a chilling mystery.  The mechanical and organizational intricacies of a railroad lift the engineer or brakeman to heroic status (even when what they’re doing is in reality a difficult and dangerous job).  The railroad colored the American imagination and is still celebrated in story and song.  Trains also offer the illusion of a fresh start: board one and you have time to become whoever or whatever you want.  No wonder writers still go to them when they want to explore a variety of human experiences.  Buy your ticket and climb on one of these great stories.

Mysteries and Thrillers

• The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton
• Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
• The Yard Dog, Sheldon Russell (read my earlier review)
• Taking of Pelham 123, John Godey
• Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith (yeah, I know it isn’t technically a train setting, but it starts on a train, and it illustrates the democratic nature of rail travel.  Even sociopaths can get on if they have a ticket.)
• From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express, Stuart Kaminsky

Fiction

• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (read Jessica’s review)
• Harpsong by Rilla Askew

Nonfiction

• Riding the Iron Rooster and The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux
• Last Train to Paradise, Les Standiford
• Nothing Like It In the World, Stephen Ambrose

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The List: Great Southern Fiction

Story is at the heart of any great writing, fiction or nonfiction, but writers from the South seem to have an instinctive understanding of how important stories are to our daily lives. It is through stories that we remember and celebrate the lives of those who have gone before us. Stories are also how we come to understand where we are going.  Through our stories we also pass down the customs and traditions that are central to our lives. Here are some writers who are superb storytellers, and for whose characters the past and the future are intricately tied together through their stories.

• Wendell Berry — Fidelity: Five Stories
  
• Olive Ann Burns — Cold Sassy Tree
• Willa Cather — Sapphira and the Slave Girl
• Fred Chappell — Farewell, I’m Bound to Leave You
• William Faulkner — Light in August
• Ernest Gaines — A Lesson Before Dying
• Ellen Glasgow — Vein of Iron
  
• Silas House – Clay’s Quilt
• Zora Neale Hurston — Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Flannery O’Connor — The Complete Stories
• Walker Percy — The Moviegoer
• Reynolds Price — Kate Vaiden
• Lee Smith — On Agate Hill
• Peter Taylor — A Summons to Memphis
• Eudora Welty — Delta Wedding
  

More favorites? Add them in the comments.

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The List: Thriller Writers Who Aren’t James Patterson

Maybe you don’t have a copy of the latest James Patterson novel because you’re waiting patiently on the holds list, or maybe he’s just not your cup of tea. Either way, try seeking your thrills from these fast-paced, adrenaline-laced novels.

• Strip, by Thomas Perry
• Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell
• The Bone Collector, by Jeffrey Deaver
• Tell No One, by Harlan Coben
• Eye of the Red Tsar, by Sam Eastland
• Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff
• Master of the Delta, by Thomas H. Cook
• Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane
• Dark of the Moon, by John Sandford

Other favorites? Add them in the comments below!

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The List: Good Poems to Memorize

I know, the last time you had to memorize and recite a poem was in high school, and it probably was a traumatic experience. But you should reconsider. Studies have shown that memorization improves memory skills. So here are a handful of poems that you might want to have a go at. I guarantee you will be the hit of your next party or family gathering, as well as extending the life of your brain. All of these are linked to a book in the library’s collection that contains the poem in question.

• Whoso List to Hunt — Thomas Wyatt
• Loveliest of Trees — A. E. Houseman (from A Shropshire Lad)
• The Destruction of Sennacherib — George Gordon, Lord Byron
• The Skylight — Seamus Heaney
• Sonnet 73 — William Shakespeare
• The Darkling Thrush — Thomas Hardy

If you are feeling ambitious and want to try a longer piece, here are some possibilities.

• Paul Revere’s Ride — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Barbara Frietchie — John Greenleaf Whittier
• Lament for Makers — William Dunbar

For more choices, take a look at Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize.

And yes, I have memorized most of these at one time or the other, and can still recite parts of all of them.

Other favorite poems to memorize? List them in the comments.

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The List: Brooding Lone-Wolf Heroes

They’ve all gone downhill since Mr. Rochester set the standard in Jane Eyre, but the craggy stony silent tortured types are still breaking hearts and acting aloof all these years later.

• Constantine in Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
• Harry Bosch in the Detective Bosch series, starting with The Black Echo, by Michael Connelly
• Bigby Wolf (who is a literal lone-wolf) in the Fables series, starting with Legends in Exile, by Bill Willingham
• Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
• Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower series, starting with The Gunslinger, by Stephen King
• Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Dexter Morgan in the Dexter series, starting with Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeffry Lindsay
• Jim Knipfel in his memoir Quitting the Nairobi Trio
• Morpheus in The Sandman series,  starting with Preludes & Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman
• Hannibal Lecter in several books, most spectacularly in The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris

(Sorry about all that testosterone. I’ll consider the women in a future post.)

Other favorites? Add them in the comments below!

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The List: Painted Women, Women Painting

Artemisia Gentileschi, 1593-1652/3

Inspired by the current exhibition at Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum, Women of the Chrysler, here’s a list of women and paintings in historical fiction. On one side of the easel, we have women painting:

• Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman elected to Florence’s Accademia dell’Arti, inspires two novels: The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland and Artemisia, by Alexandra Lapierre.
• The Creation of Eve, by Lynn Cullen, features Renaissance portraitist Sofonisba Anguissola.
• The Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant, follows a fictional woman painter through Savonarola’s Florence.
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Scott Chessman, was inspired by five Mary Cassatt paintings of her ailing older sister.
• With Violets, by Elizabeth Robards, chronicles the affair between Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet.
• Emily Carr paints the Canadian landscape in The Forest Lover, by Susan Vreeland. Find more artists and their lovers in Vreeland’s collection of short stories, Life Studies.
• Keeping the World Away, by Margaret Forster, concerns British painter Gwen John.
• Frida Kahlo is the subject of two novels: Frida, by Barbara Mujica and In the Casa Azul: a Novel of Revolution and Betrayal, by Meaghan Delahunt.
• China’s Pan Yuliang is The Painter from Shanghai, by Jennifer Cody.

On the other side of the easel, we have the muses–wives, mistresses, patrons, and daughters who have inspired great paintings:

• Leonardo’s Swans, by Karen Essex, features Isabella and Beatrice d’Este, sisters and rival patrons of da Vinci.
• Lisa di Antonio Gherardini is immortalized by Leonardo da Vinci in I, Mona Lisa, by Jeanne Kalogridis.
• Meet Leonardo’s mother, Caterina, in Signora da Vinci, by Robin Maxwell.
• In Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Vanora Bennett, Tudor portraitist Hans Holbein paints Sir Thomas More’s daughters.
• Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, views Vermeer through the eyes of his maid, Griet.
• The Wayward Muse, by Elizabeth Hickey, is pre-Raphaelite muse Jane Burden; she was the model for Rossetti’s Proserpine.
• A young woman from the Paris Opera ballet is the model in Dancing for Degas, by Kathryn Wagner.
• Stephanie Cowell writes the portrait of a marriage in Claude and Camille: a Novel of Monet. Read this one with: Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: the Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin, by Ruth Butler.
• In The Last Van Gogh, by Alyson Richman, Vincent paints his doctor’s daughter, Marguerite Gachet. Read with: Portrait of Dr. Gachet, by Cynthia Saltzman.
• Sunflowers, by Sheramy Bundrick, supposes the narrator’s affair with Van Gogh.
• Virginie Gautreau and John Singer Sargent scandalize society in I am Madame X, by Gioia Diliberto. Read more in: Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis.
• Gustav Klimt paints the fashionable Emilie Flöge in The Painted Kiss, by Elizabeth Hickey.

Have other favorites? Share them in the comments!

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The List: War – What Is It Good For?

Edwin Starr got right to the heart of the question in his 1969 song.  In spite of countless efforts to romanticize and idealize war, many writers have persisted in conjuring the vision of deliberate destruction and senseless slaughter that is war’s reality.  Why does war fiction make such compelling reading?  Perhaps, paradoxically, the worst of humanity can show us the best in individuals.   Perhaps we have an atavistic need to experience danger from a safe place.  Perhaps we just haven’t learned the right lessons.

These authors have ventured into the maw of war and returned with a view of humanity at its worst.

• Tim O’Brien – The Things They Carried
• Anton Myrer – Once an Eagle
• Robert Stone – Dog Soldiers
• Sebastien Japrisot – A Very Long Engagement
• Michael Shaara – The Killer Angels
• Norman Mailer – The Naked and the Dead
• Jim Webb – Fields of Fire
• Scott Turow – Ordinary Soldiers
• Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front
• Joseph Heller – Catch-22
• David Robbins – War of the Rats
• Steven Pressfield – Gates of Fire
• Richard Hooker – MASH

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The List: Charlotte is the New Jane

Every time it seems the market for Jane Austen-esque sequels, parodies, and pastiches must have been exhausted, up pops another title. Jane fights crime! The Darcys fight crime! Mr. Darcy has a fling with Charles Bingley! Years go by, and still one cannot walk past the new book shelf without encountering “vampyre” Darcy or vampire Jane herself. It must be hard to jump the shark wearing one of those flimsy gowns.

But if you weary of genteel heroines in empire-waisted dresses… if you simply can’t take one more round of those endless country dances… take a walk on the wilder side of the English novel as publishers turn to Charlotte Brontë for inspiration. Why read about drawing rooms and strolls through Bath when you can have horrible boarding schools and the lonely moors?

• Romancing Miss Brontë, by Juliet Gael
• The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, by Syrie James
• Charlotte and Emily, by Jude Morgan
• Charlotte fights crime in The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë, by mystery author Laura Joh Rowland. The series continues with…
• Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë.
• In the mood for something a little more contemporary? Try The Brontë Project:  a Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR, by Jennifer Vandever.

Any recommendations? Share them in the comments below!

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The List: Great Essayists

There are times when the thought of committing to reading a novel or a work of narrative nonfiction can seem overwhelming. When the distractions of the day do not offer enough concentrated time to get through a longer work, we are fortunate to have a long history of superb essay writing to draw on. The best essayists distill the essence of their topic into a more easily approached form. Here are some of the writers that I go to when I am in need of a brief respite from daily cares. Most of the writers on this list have numerous titles to choose from. The ones listed here are suggested starting points.

• John McPhee — Giving Good Weight
• E.B. White — One Man’s Meat
• Michel de Montaigne — Essays
• Joseph Epstein — Narcissus Leaves the Pool
• Anne Fadiman — At Large and At Small
• George Orwell — Essays
• Michael Chabon — Maps and Legends
• Reynolds Price — A Common Room
• Wendell Berry — Standing by Words
• Ursula K. Le Guin — The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
• Joseph Mitchell — Up in the Old Hotel

Other favorites? Add them in the comments below!

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The List: Graphic Novels That Aren’t

Some of my favorite works of nonfiction are presented in the graphic format, though calling them “graphic novels” is awkward– novels are fictional– and calling them “graphic novels that aren’t novels” does not roll trippingly from the tongue. I don’t know what to call them, but I do know I like them…

Some biographies:

• Logicomix, by Apostolos Doxiadis, et al., about mathematical logician and anti-nuclear activist Bertrand Russell
• Vlad the Impaler, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón,  a bio of the depraved Romanian ruler that puts the “graphic” in “graphic novel” (see what I mean here, if you have a strong stomach)
• Trotsky, by Rick Geary, about the Russian revolutionary

Some memoirs (all of which have won impressive literary awards):

• Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, a depressing but brilliant story about a woman’s troubled father
• Stitches, by David Small, about a child whose radiologist father accidentally– whoopsie!– gives his son cancer
• Maus, by Art Spiegelman, the Holocaust memoir/bio that first introduced mainstream audiences to the literary potential of graphic novels

And some “Maybe this difficult topic will be more accessible with pictures” books:

• The Stuff of Life, by Mark Schultz, all about genetics and DNA
• Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, by Michael Keller: it’s the most controversial work of all time, now with speech bubbles!
• Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, a wonderfully entertaining work of art history
• A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld, the story of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
  

Other favorites? Add them in the comments below!

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The List: Shakespeare’s Heirs

It’s no secret that William Shakespeare is probably history’s greatest literary thief.  Roman sources, medieval Italian stories, English histories, even a contemporary book about the sinking of a ship on its way to Jamestown – all were ripe for the picking.  But Shakespeare took those prosaic tales and turned them into plays that, as Ben Jonson said, were “not of an age, but for all time.”  The conflicts and complex characters (even the foolish ones) that he created dig into the soul of humanity and produce insights that have echoed in cultures across time and space.  (In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Chancellor Gorkon says “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you’ve read him in the original Klingon.”  Don’t ask me to do the translation – that’s for other people.)

But Will himself is not immune from literary borrowing.  So, in honor of his 446th birthday, here is a partial list of books by other authors who have envisioned Shakespearean plays in their own way.  Please add your suggestions via the Comments – we’d love to see them.*

King Lear:

• Galt Niederhoffer – A Taxonomy of Barnacles
• Gwynne Forster – When Twilight Comes
• Rohinton Mistry – Family Matters
• Jane Smiley – A Thousand Acres

Hamlet:

• Lin Enger – Undiscovered Country
• John Updike – Gertrude and Claudius
• Merlin Hermes – The Lunatic, The Lover, and The Poet
• David Wroblewski – The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
• Justin Evans – A Good and Happy Child
• Matt Haig – The Dead Fathers Club

The Scottish Play (hey, I’m superstitious too)

• Ron Rash – Serena
• Joseph Finder – Killer Instinct
• Rebecca Reisert – The Third Witch
• Tim Green – Kingdom Come

Romeo and Juliet

• Sulaiman Addonia – Consequences of Love

The Tempest

• Dexter Clarence Palmer – The Dream of Perpetual Motion
• Elizabeth Nunez – Prospero’s Daughter

A Midsummer’s Night Dream

• Amanda Craig – Love in Idleness

*Only three of these titles incorporate actual Shakespearean characters, but they offer those characters a unique voice.  A list that covers the universe of books in which Will and/or his characters appear would probably break the Internet, so in the interest of social order, I’m not going to try, and ask you not to include them in your responses.

A final point: both Shakespeare and these authors borrowed freely from other sources and gave them new lives.  If he was born in 1964 instead of 1564, Will would have found writing much more difficult, given recent changes in copyright law.

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